The littlest tree snake
by Narutoscreed
Summary: Anko decides that she'll take in Naruto when she sees him being beaten by a mob of villagers. How will this change the destiny of our little hero? Rated M to be safe, nothing to warrant it yet.
1. Chapter 1

The littlest tree snake

Chapter 1

Disclaimer, I suppose I don't own Naruto or any thing else for that matter.

Premise, what would happen if Anko interfered in the raising of Naruto from a young age, say 5 years old?

/ Breaking up the party \

Anko was running late, nothing really unusual in that, but this time it was important. She was supposed to be meeting the Hokage in his office about the continuation of her shinobi career after the vacation she took.

It'd been a much needed vacation too, she'd barely survived the lessons her teacher had wanted to impart after he made her his apprentice. That was a nasty business, one that led to her betraying the man once she understood that she was just an expendable tool for the Snake Sannin. A tool for him to use in his illegal experiments. Oh he'd taught her a lot, his skills weren't legendary for nothing, but he'd also taught her other things. Such as how much pain she could take before her mind snapped like a dry twig or how close she could come to death without actually dying.

So yeah, she'd needed a break to figure out if she really wanted to continue as a ninja and to be honest three months hadn't been anywhere near enough time. The doubt still plagued her in the darkness of night when sleep wouldn't come or when the nightmares roused her from a fitful sleep. The outcome of the meeting she was late for was still very much up in the air.

So here she was speeding from roof to roof, her feet barely touching tile before she was airborne once more and almost at the next roof she was moving that fast. So she almost missed something, she'd only noted it from the corner of her eye but something told her that it wasn't a normal crowd, it was a mob. A mindless seething mass of supposed humanity with a common denominator. As a ninja of Konoha, even one who was unsure she wanted to be one, it was her duty to find out why they were gathered, disrupt them and send them on their way if they didn't have a valid reason. To do so she'd have to backtrack several rooves as she'd overshot them a ways back.

Another thing roof hopping was good for was for being able to see over the tops of crowds. Now that she was back she could see that this was an angry crowd and if she recognised the young boy in the middle then things were about to get ugly. Not that it wasn't already, one of the villagers was drawing his foot back from where he'd just sunk it into the little kid.

"Die you bastard, you shouldn't be allowed to live! You're a demon!" the man was almost rabid he was that far gone in his rage. He nearly missed the fact that his foot had been pinned to the ground with a kunai as he went to kick the child again and screamed as the pain suddenly slammed into his system. That and another kunai that smashed through his collarbone, neither wound would kill the man but they'd certainly make him rethink what he was doing, that and he was the new centre of attention for the mob the child all but forgotten.

The villagers began searching for the source of the weapons, which didn't take long since Anko wasn't in a hiding kind of mood.

"So you fuckers want to hurt someone? Come on then, I'll take you on! At least then if you beat me you can say you had the balls to fight someone who could fight back. But then again, you fight me and you cowards will need to have your balls reattached surgically," Anko brandished a fistful of kunai so the villagers would get her meaning before she started throwing them close enough to panic the civilians but not actually hitting them. She wasn't trying to be altruistic it was just that she wanted them running away from the kid and they might not do that if they were hurt.

"AAaahh! It's the demon snake!"

"Run for your lives!" and so began the rout leaving a smirking Anko to watch as the fuckers found something much more interesting to do elsewhere. That and the people on the edge of the crowd were suddenly not a part of the crowd, they were just innocent passersby caught in a bad situation.

It was things like this that made the young kunoichi doubt her reasons for being a ninja. Why would she want to protect these ignorant fools? Surely they didn't deserve protection, it'd be better for the human race if they were removed from the gene pool in the most horrific manner she could arrange. Wouldn't it?

Stepping off the roof she landed on the dusty street and coughed lightly as a cloud of dust formed around her. The child hadn't moved since the crowd had dispersed and she was worried, surely the kid should have moved by now? What if they'd managed to do what they started? What if the Kyubi kid was dead? Anko cursed under her breath as she got nearer, the list of faces running through her head, if they had killed him they were going to pay in a similar coin.

Kneeling down next to the still form she rolled him onto his back and checked for pulse and breathing. She sighed in relief as she found both and then ran one of the only medical jutsu she knew, a diagnostic tool she'd learned so that she could assess courses of action for injured team-mates, not that she had any anymore. The green spiritually imbued chakra used in healing techniques touched the boys body and she began to interpret the influx of data she received. Hmmm, couple of busted ribs, already three quarters healed. She thought they might be old injuries except that she could see the progress of them healing it was happening that fast.

Well the broken bones were all the injuries she could find, other than the bruising you'd expect around broken bones so the kid should be conscious. That was when she looked up and found he'd opened the most incredibly blue eyes and was gazing at her in wonder. Though he didn't ask any questions she could see them in those eyes, the biggest one was, 'Why?'

"Well kiddo, looks like you'll live. I suppose I'd better get you to the Hokage and he can figure out what to do with you," Anko grinned at him, "Don't feel like talking huh? Well I can't say I blame you." Reaching over she slid her hands under him and picked him up.

"So tell me, you ever roof hopped before?" she didn't wait to see him shake his head before she leapt for the nearest balcony, two stories up and then flipped across the alley to a roof another three stories up. Landing in a crouch she noted that the boy wasn't even scared, in fact he looked excited, but then she supposed after facing down a mob of angry adults merely hopping up to a roof was pretty tame. Shrugging mentally she set off again for the meeting she was now even later for than she intended.

/ Hokage's office \

"This is just shoddy, are you sure you want to keep her on the books. Tardiness like this isn't a good thing you know."

"Hmm, true, tardiness is a bad thing in a ninja, but then I give my ninja a little leeway since they face such hard tasks everyday. Look at the likes of Kakashi, ANBU captain at the age of twenty one, he's always late, and not just by," he looked at the clock on the wall, "twenty minutes either. This meeting is to determine whether she wants to continue her career in any case. I think she's earned a little consideration with what she went through." Sarutobi glared at his old team-mate, Danzo hadn't always been like this, but then old age and constant war had hardened the man.

"Exactly, she was apprenticed to that traitor."

"A fact that we allowed, I seem to recall you backing the move at the time. Was it her fault that he turned out to be a murdering, evil bastard that would experiment on shinobi and civilians of this village? A fact that we missed, until she betrayed the mans activities. If anyone owes anyone an apology it should be us apologizing to her for the pain we allowed to be inflicted on her." That not being the only apology he owed, six months on from his confrontation with Orochimaru he admitted he should have treated the traitor like a poisonous snake and taken its head off while he had the chance.

Turning to the door as it swung open without a knock, the Third smiled at his new visitor, "Ah Anko-chan, please come in." He raised an eyebrow when he saw who she was carrying.

"Eh-heh, he followed me here, can I keep him?" Anko smirked as she looked down at the small body she was carrying. So she missed the quizzical look she was given by the two occupants of the room.

"Maybe you should tell us why you have Naruto with you," Danzo asked harshly as he scratched absently at his crippled arm where it hung in its sling.

"Um, I was heading here when I spotted this crowd, when I investigated I found him injured in the middle of said crowd. The cowards wouldn't stick around to attack me when I offered though." She smirked evilly as she remembered the crowd running like a panicked covey of quail.

"I see," Sarutobi regarded the young woman carefully trying to discern her reasons for helping the boy, "Well if you'd just put Naruto on the couch over there we should really get to the reason for this meeting."

Anko looked down at the child before she spoke, "Don't panic, I won't hurt you."

Before Naruto even had a chance to figure out what she meant he was airborne, just like roof hopping except there was no one to support him. He didn't even know why he didn't panic when he couldn't control his flight but for some reason he just knew he could trust the woman. Besides if she wanted to hurt him she could have done it by now. It came as a surprise when the back of his feet struck the arm of the couch changing his flightpath so that he struck one of the cushions and bounced up and down a few times before coming to rest.

Naruto had to restrain himself from running back to her and asking her to do it again, that'd been more fun than he could ever remember, and the grin on his face just wouldn't quit as he watched the three adults settle in to talk. He'd be content to wait until she was finished with whatever she had to do first.

Anko turned away before the boy even hit the couch, satisfied that he hadn't panicked. If he'd flailed around he could have changed his trajectory and she'd have had to save him, again. It pleased her to no end that the small boy had given her his trust, it couldn't have been easy for him to do, what with all the things he'd had to deal with in his life. She couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips as she turned to watch the leader of her village retake his seat at the imposing desk.

"So Anko, have you made a decision yet?"

"I have sir," she had to restrain herself from watching the small blonde she'd save.

"Well?"

"I wish to remain a shinobi of the village sir, but I have a couple of requests," Anko wasn't certain about her course of action but she did know one thing.

"Go ahead," Sarutobi gently prodded the thinking woman.

"Well sir, I really wasn't going to return to active duty, but then I……" she decided to go for broke, it couldn't hurt to try, "I'd like to, I want to take care of Naruto, you know train him and stuff," the words flowing rapidly as she didn't know when the outraged outcry would begin.

"You can't allow that sir, you might as well hand him over to me. I could see to his training better than this girl ever could." Danzo spoke before the Hokage could formulate a reply.

"That will never happen Danzo, and I shan't waste my time explaining to you yet again just why we don't need an emotionless killing machine. As for you Anko, why would you want to take on such a responsibility, you're young. You shouldn't do such a thing, it'll definitely stunt your social life." Anko just snorted, 'What social life?' The whole village avoided her since Orochimaru had fled the Land of Fire.

"Um, well he's just like me sir. He didn't ask for anyone to hate him, didn't do anything to deserve it either. I've seen the way he's treated and it makes the way they treat me look almost pleasant. If I'm going to be a shinobi, then I want to protect people and I choose to start with Naruto."

"Ah, you do realize that if that's the case I'll have to restrict you to C rank missions within the village? If you're going to take on such a responsibility you'll have to take it seriously, I need Naruto to be taught well, and looked after properly. Which means that dango is not a healthy food to raise a growing boy on," he smirked as she let out a moue of distaste, 'How could dango not be considered good enough?'

She hadn't really considered what it would mean to raise a child, the commitment meant that she couldn't take those missions outside of the village as she'd have to be away for too long and thus she might as well leave him to fend for himself in the first place. It also brought to light just how much she knew about raising a kid, which amounted to nada, zip, nothing.

"You've got a deal," it was becoming apparent to her that the situation surrounding Naruto was more important to her than she thought it was, "when do I start?"

"Well there's no time like the present I suppose. Now, even if you adopt Naruto, he's still a ward of the village and as such he'll still receive a stipend for his upkeep, oh and if you keep any receipts for training equipment just bring them in and I'll reimburse you. Within reason Anko," he'd seen the unholy light that entered her eyes at being given carte blanche on expenses like that. Plus watching her pout like that was fun.

"Well you're no fun!" she exclaimed before moving on to another concern that she'd just thought of. Her apartment was fine for just her but with another person it'd just be too small, "Can I requisition a two room apartment? The one I have now will be fine for a while but as Naruto grows it'll be too small."

"Certainly, it'll probably be easier on the both of you if we do that as soon as possible. I'll have the lands office contact you with all the listed properties and you can make a choice from there. So then I think that covers just about any contingency in the short-term, if you think of anything else don't hesitate to approach me, my doors always open. Hmm, Danzo, can you think of anything else?" Sarutobi turned to the other man who'd been almost sulking for the bulk of the conversation.

"No, I can't, so if you'll excuse me I have more important things to be doing with my time," Naruto watched wide eyed as the man rose angrily, and then sighed in relief as he turned and headed for the door, slamming it as he left. In Naruto's opinion it was never a good thing when there were angry adults around, he invariably got hurt. Anko looked at the Hokage and shrugged as if to ask, 'What's his problem?'

Sarutobi sighed, it seemed that the man wasn't over not being chosen by the council to be the Fourth, or to replace Minato Namikaze after he died, the council had felt that the villagers would be happier with a known quantity at the helm such as Sarutobi than a 'War Hawk' such as Danzo. The man had all the subtlety of a brick, and the political skills too.

"I hate to sound like him, Anko-chan but he's right. I really have too much to do, so if you're certain on what you wish to do I shan't detain you further." Sarutobi smiled at the young kunoichi who returned it with a hesitant smile of he own. That was like a record for her over the last few years, two smiles in one day, would wonders never cease?

"Thankyou for your time Hokage-sama, I'll just grab Naruto and be on my way." Turning away she walked over to the five year old, who with the usual inquisitiveness of a five year old had managed to pull half a dozen books out of a shelf, something he'd only ever do in this office since it was the only place he'd ever felt safe.

"Come on brat, we've got some shopping to do," Anko said as she reached down and picked him up by his belt before heading for the door with a giggling bundle of energy dangling from her hand. That was the image that burned itself into the old mans mind, that carefree swing to her gait as she walked from the room, and the wide smile on the boys face as she swung him through the air.

He had great hopes for the both of them, hopefully there would be a healing for them in the future. They both deserved it for all the pain they'd faced.

/ To be continued? \

A/N : This was just a short feeler chapter to see if anyone would be interested in the idea of this story. Anko is twenty six or so when we first meet her in canon so she's just shy of twenty in this story, Naruto's just past five.

**_Reviews are always appreciated, oh and if you haven't read my other work, feel free to drop in on 'One fine day' and enjoy. You can review that one too if you _****_like_**.


	2. Chapter 2

The littlest tree snake

Chapter 2

Disclaimer, see chapter 1.

/ A new life \

Naruto wasn't really sure what was going on, at first he'd been kind of scared. New people, especially adults were something he usually tried to avoid. Then he'd felt the energy she'd used to check on his health and knew deep down that this was someone like him, someone he could trust. The spiritual aspect of the healing energy kind of set up an echo that resonated with his own emotions in a way that as a five year old he had no way to express.

Then there'd been the roof-hopping, the Hokage's office and then they'd left. He'd had more fun in the hour since he'd met her than he could remember having in his entire life. Now they were heading for his home, the Konoha Orphange, home to the children of victims of the Kyubi attack, and the numerous wars that Konoha had been in over the last decade. The woman, Anko if he'd heard right, hadn't put him down since she'd grabbed his belt, and while it had been fun to begin with, it'd been going on long enough that he was almost ready to hurl.

Thankfully they reached their destination before that came to pass, he'd be really embarrassed if he puked on her after she'd been so nice to him.

"Alright kid, this the place?"

"Yeah," Naruto averred morosely, he liked the woman and knew that he'd probably never see her again after he entered the building. Coming to a decision he waited until she'd put him down and turned to knock on the door before he bolted in an effort to prolong the time he could spend with her, unfortunately she was much faster and more agile than he was and he'd only taken ten steps before she was hoisting him upwards.

"Where do you think you're going, look kid, I don't have time to waste, we're here to pick up your stuff and then we're going shopping." Anko smirked at the shocked expression in the boys eyes.

"Huh?" he asked. Anko suddenly realized that no one had thought to explain the situation to Naruto.

"Yes? Can I help you…..Oh, I see you've brought the brat back. What's the little shit done this time?" as she reached for the blonde boy, Anko could see the expression on the woman's face and decided she didn't like it, not one bit. The world suddenly blurred around Naruto and by the time it cleared he was inside the building, Anko had the carer pinned against a wall, her elbow pressing into the woman's sternum while she held a kunai to her throat.

"Let's get something clear between us right now. You don't call Naruto names, and you certainly don't look at him that way. Oh and one last thing, we're only here to pick up his stuff, so if you'll get for me we'll be on our way." Anko released the woman and smiled as she wheezed a couple of times before asking.

"Just what do you mean by that? You can't just come in here and take a child. I won't allow it." The woman managed to smirk, she was the lord of this domain and her word was law, there was no way this upstart was going to take the demon brat out of her 'care', she hadn't done paying it back for all the pain it'd caused her and her family. Not to mention all of the other children in the orphanage.

"I think you missed the point of what I just said, so let me demonstrate," Anko flicked the kunai and watched as it smacked into the plaster by the woman's head with a dull thump. "I wasn't asking you bitch, I'm telling you. Get the boys stuff or I'll gut you like a fish. Or have you forgotten just who I am?"

Anko wasn't sure if she should be happy about the fact that the woman's face went so pale, or the fact that she nearly soiled herself, but it did get her moving. It only took a minute or two all told for the woman to return with a small bundle of clothes, there were no other effects such as toys or books, just a pitifully small bundle of clothes that looked like they'd been handed down a few times before they came to Naruto.

"That everything?" she asked suspiciously but not really surprised when Naruto nodded. "Okay then looks like we'll need to go clothes shopping first and then we'll go for training gear," Anko paused in her explanation of what they'd be doing to turn back to the orphanages care, "Oh and thanks, you've been ever so helpful," she said spitefully as the woman glowered feebly.

"The Hokage will hear of this outrage!"

"That's nice, being as though the Hokage already okayed everything. He might want to ask you a few questions about how you run this place though so don't go anywhere. You really don't want me to 'hunt' you down." Naruto simply looked on, a little fearfully now that emotions were starting to build. The only relief was that none of it was directed at him.

"Alright let's go gaki, we've got stuff to do," she held her hand out and waited for Naruto to decide whether to take it or not, and sighed a little when he didn't. Turning she began to walk slowly away, "You coming?"

Naruto stared at her for a moment, undecided as to whether this was a dream or not, like many of the orphans he'd held a hope that one day someone would come and see him and say, 'Would you like to come home with me?' Such a simple phrase but so powerful in its implications. Oh, he'd held the dream, but it never came to pass, every prospective couple that had come had merely glared at him, letting him know that it would never be him that left the orphanage. Now here was someone who seemed to be taking him away from the orphanage and if it was a dream he wasn't sure he ever wanted to wake. He barely heard the last question, but his whole being lit up with his emphatic answer, even though he never said a word, "YES!" and he began trotting behind the woman as she walked away.

They'd been walking for a while when Anko decided they'd move a lot quicker if she picked him up and carried him, so as per usual she did just what she was thinking. Besides she was tired of the evil looks people were giving the kid and hoped that if they knew he was with her that they'd leave him alone.

"Alley-hoop," she picked him up and flipped him so that he landed on her shoulders where he grabbed a fistful of hair to steady himself. Wincing she admitted that it probably wasn't a good idea to do that without warning him first but oh well, lesson learned and all that.

"Right clothes first," she sped up a little, though Naruto hardly noticed. It was a different world from up here, he could see so much further when peoples legs weren't in the way. Kneecaps were interesting and all that, but he found the sights much more interesting when he could see past the glaring people to what was in the stalls and shops they passed. Spotting a bakery, well having his nostrils hijacked by the delicious smells wafting from the open doorway caused his tummy to gurgle loudly. Which to Anko sounded really impressive since his stomach was pressed against the back of her head.

"Hungry huh," she wondered when he'd last eaten if he sounded like that. "Well let's go get something to tide us over until lunch." Stepping into the store she ordered a dozen sticks of dango and two bottles of green tea. It was heartening to notice the server behind the counter didn't even react to the presence of Naruto, the first person Anko had met that didn't react for that matter.

"Nice place you've got here," Anko commented as she handed over the money.

"Thankyou, we're kind of new to Konoha. Arrived about four years ago when they were rebuilding, picked out some cheap land and all we had to do was clear the block of the rubble, which didn't take too long. Me and my husband Takaichi have been trading for about three years now. Oh my how rude, I'm so sorry I'm Akiko Kawata," the woman blushed as she realized she'd been talking the woman's ear off without an introduction.

"Anko Mitarashi, and this little tyke," she reached back and tickled his ribs eliciting a giggle, "Is Naruto Uzumaki." She waited for a response with baited breath, she hadn't had much luck with the boy so far, it seemed people weren't willing to look beyond their fear.

"Well hello there Naruto, how are you?" she smiled as the little boy ducked behind Anko's head as much as he could thinking he was just being shy, rather than the truth which was that he was trying to make himself a smaller target.

"Ah, don't mind him, he'll get over it soon," Anko said, meaning his fear of people, while Akiko thought she meant his shyness, "Well we've got what we came here for, it was a pleasure meeting you Kawata-san. I'll be sure to tell all my friends about the great service," she managed to take a bite of her first dango and grinned as a sense of sheer bliss washed through her, "Ift's guhd," she swallowed quickly, "and I can tell them the foods great too." Not that it'd add up to a great deal of new trade, but in business every little bit helps, right?

"Thankyou, and please come again." Akiko called after the departing pair.

"Here you go Naruto," Anko handed back a stick of dango only releasing it when she felt he'd grasped it firmly. Naruto looked at the odd offering and gave it a tentative sniff, well it smelled alright and if he could believe what he was seeing it had to taste alright since Anko had managed to eat another stick while he was looking at his. He took a nibble out of it and chewed thoughtfully before his face lit up, it was the best thing he'd ever eaten in his life. The rest of the stick didn't last more than five seconds as he did a credible chipmunk impression. Oddly enough this garnered the pair a few smiles as they had matching expressions, both blissful and both had their cheeks stuffed with dango.

Unusual for Anko but she only took seven of the dango, leaving the others for Naruto. Then handed him a small bottle of green tea, "Make sure you keep a tight grip now, and don't spill it, okay?"

"Yes," Naruto grasped the bottle close to his chest and took occasional sips as they got closer to the business centre of the village, Naruto had never come this far on his exploration trips so every sight was new to him, and he noted that fewer people glared his way. He didn't know that it was because people here were busy and had better things to do with their time but he was grateful nonetheless. A quick trip into a clothing store and there were a lot more bags being carried.

"How you doing Naruto, you alright up there?"

"Yes," Naruto wouldn't admit it but with a full belly and all the excitement of the day he was feeling quite tired all of a sudden, but in the way of all little kids he was stubbornly hanging on as long as he could. He didn't want the best day of his life to end so soon and sleeping seemed to be such a waste.

Not being fooled for a second Anko responded, "Alright little one, I'll just be a few minutes and then we can head home." Picking up her pace she headed for the nearest weapons shop to her home, they didn't have the best weapons in the village, but they did have the accessories she wanted. She'd pick up weapons at a later date, like when they'd do some good before the boy outgrew them, she could use the academies practice weapons until then.

Five minutes later she could see the shop, and it was just a shop, the owner brought cut price weapons and armor from other countries and villages and resold them to the ninja of Konoha. He did pretty good trade too even though the quality wasn't as good as that found at 'The Forge' on the far side of Konoha, he did manage to beat their prices.

The rule of thumb for the village was, if it absolutely must not fail, then visit 'The Forge', if it doesn't matter or if you're broke then visit 'Sato's Fine Weapons'. One thing Sato did that the Tenkawa family didn't was seals, Sato had the widest selection of explosives, storage scrolls and more importantly, chakra weights than any other store in the village. The others all claimed that they took far too long to create properly to be cost effective.

Anko stepped up to the heavy wooden door and pushed it open, walking into a brightly lit room with stands of weaponry and armour on display.

"Ah, good morning, how can I help you today?" the man behind the counter smiled as he watched his latest customer walk in. He vaguely recognised the woman from descriptions he'd been given but didn't put much stock in them. There was no way the Hokage would have just let her go if she were that evil.

"Hi, I'm looking for a set of variable chakra weights for the tyke here," Anko said drawing the mans attention to the little boy resting on her shoulders who was looking around at all the weapons with wide eyes. It only took Sato a second to recognise the Kyubi container, and in an ironic about face showed that the leeway he'd give Anko was in no way given to the demon fox.

"I'm sorry we're closed," the man stated emphatically.

"What do you mean you're closed? You're obviously not since it's the middle of the day and you've got a sign on the door saying you're open," Anko looked at the man carefully as he started to sweat.

"I was just about to close up," he quickly amended.

"That's bullshit too," Anko growled, she knew where this was going and just wanted the honest truth out of him.

"Then how about this, we don't serve his kind in this store!" the man said as he pointed at Naruto who was now wide awake and staring at the man.

"You don't serve the ninja of this village?" Anko asked in a silky voice, anyone who knew her would have been running for the hills by now. It seemed that the man didn't know her though.

"You heard what I said, I specifically said 'Him'."

"Oh, and what makes you think he isn't a ninja of this village?"

"He's just a kid," Anko didn't even bother pointing out the fallacy of that argument, what with the likes of Itachi and Kakashi in the village. She just stalked towards the man who stepped back warily, his eyes never leaving Naruto. Which would prove to be a mistake.

"Souga Sousai no Jutsu," Anko hissed as her free hand exploded into the forms of two striking snakes, each as thick as her upper arms. Their heads gaped wide as they struck the plaster wall on either side of the mans head. Sato was beside himself, or at least wished he was as he tried to watch all three threats at once, Anko, the snakes, and funnily enough the boy had slid to a distant third on his threat metre.

Anko withdrew the snakes pulling out great chunks of the plaster work to crumble on the ground.

"Are you going to serve us?" Anko asked, the silky edge gone now that she'd revealed that she wouldn't be messed with. Naruto just watched on with his mouth dropped open and eyes even wider than they'd been before.

"Just take them, and get out," the man yelled as he bolted through a side door, Anko let him go, not really wanting to deal with the paperwork she'd have to deal with if she assaulted the man.

"Well if you're sure?" Anko strolled over to the display and looked at the mans wares, he really did have the best selection, and…..Oh, ho-ho what's this, fifteen thousand Ryo?

Quickly reading the card she picked up the small necklace, admitting that that was a new one and pocketed it. Underneath was a copy of the owners manual so that prospective customers could see all the neat features of the device.

"Cool, this'll do nicely," she smirked as she pocketed the book as well and strolled out of the shop flicking a kunai as she closed the door, she wouldn't be going back in there no matter what the state of her finances. Anko wasted no more time as she headed for her apartment.

"What was that?" Naruto asked her.

"What was what?"

"The snakes, they came out of your hand and wham! That was so cool, can you teach me?" the words came almost faster than his tongue could form them he was so excited.

"We'll see," Anko allowed.

"Pleeeeaase!"

"I said we'll see, Naruto. There's lots of other things you have to learn before you can do something as advanced as 'Souga Sousai no Jutsu'."

"Like what?" he bounced up and down excitedly on his steed.

"Well there's all the academy stuff, and then….Look we don't have time to go over this stuff right now. But I promise you that when I think you're ready I'll teach you everything I know. Okay?"

"Okay!" Naruto yelled, his excitement undulled by the promise, unlike the few other promises he'd been given he felt that this one at least would be honoured.

Anko winced at the sharp sound right by her ear but smiled. She knew that once they got to her apartment and the adrenaline rush wore off he'd collapse like a puppet with its strings cut.

/ Sato's Fine Weapons \

It took Sato a good hour to come out of his hideout, and when he did he found out why he suddenly couldn't see out of his spy hole, there was a kunai lodged in it, smashed right through the lens of the two millimetre optical device. How she'd even seen it, much less hit it with a kunai he'd never know, and never wanted to know. Looking around the store at the damage she'd caused, he estimated five hundred Ryo for repair work to the walls and replacing his spy hole, plus a few hundred for the chakra weights.

He winced at the expense, he would have done better just to serve her. He'd also revised his earlier opinion, she wasn't as evil as the villagers had told him, she was much eviller. He almost howled when he went to check on the cost of the chakra weights she'd taken. He'd forgotten that he'd it on display in all the furore. Sato was on the edge of tears as he contemplated what would likely happen when his partner found out, he certainly couldn't afford to lose the man, he was a genius.

The heavyset man was startled when he heard the bell above the door ring announcing a customer, he wished it wasn't that snake bitch coming back. When he turned around he found two ANBU members looking at him calmly.

"The Hokage understands there was an affray here, and wonders if you'd like to make a report?"

Sato almost grinned, this was his chance to pay the bitch back, "There certainly was ANBU-san, a woman came into my store and when I refused her service she threatened me with physical violence and then stole a piece of extremely expensive equipment."

"The woman's name is Anko Mitarashi and she's a special jounin of this village. Your charges are pretty serious, we'll need to know the full extent of the damages and their cost."

"Well there's the damage to the wall over there, and my spy hole, that'll cost nearly eight hundred Ryo to fix. That spy hole is a very expensive piece of equipment. Though not as expensive as the chakra weights she stole. They were worth fifteen thousand Ryo!" He would have tried to flesh out the price of the weights too if he'd had more time to think about it and replace the ticket on the shelf. As it was one of the ANBU had already wandered over and was looking at the ticket in question.

The man whistled in surprise, he'd thought the man was lying when he said fifteen thousand, "What kind of weights cost this much?" he asked incredulously.

"They were an experimental type, in fact that was the first working model, after years and years of failed experiments we finally got one working and she stole them!"

"Oh, and what did they do that these others didn't?"

"They weren't technically weights. Well not in the traditional sense, you see weights have always had a minor problem in that they only affect certain parts of the body. Like if you have them on your wrist, well that works fine for your arms but the muscles that interlock with your arms, such as your shoulder only received a minimal increase in work-load, unless you ridiculously overloaded yourself. This, was an advancement in that it applied the weight evenly across your whole body, it was more like a gravity multiplier than a weight. It even had an advanced feedback seal that sensed when the persons body had fully adapted to the change and increased to the next level." Sato couldn't help bragging, he'd helped pioneer the technique, not so much the seals themselves but definitely the ideas and features behind it.

"I see…. That's rather clever," the dog masked ANBU admitted.

"Clever? They were a masterpiece, a work of art and worth every Ryo." Sato enthused.

"Hmmm, so all up the damages come to nearly sixteen thousand Ryo, is that correct?"

"Yes, that's right," he had to stop himself from rubbing his hands together in glee at the thought of such a rich payout.

"Well it's a funny thing, but that's just about the amount the Hokage was going to fine you for refusing service to one of his special jounin."

"What?"

"Yes, so if you could see your way clear to dropping any charges, I'm sure I can talk the Hokage into turning a blind eye to this unfortunate incident. If you were to insist though, I'm sure everything would turn out just fine, though the ninja of the village might ask why it is that you would not serve a ninja of this village and take their business elsewhere."

"Why would you have to tell them anything? This is a private matter surely?"

"Well normally it would be, but the Hokage feels that abuse of power by ninja of the village shouldn't remain hidden from the village, and that would breed contempt. Now we can't be having that can we?"

"N-no, of c-course not," Sato had blanched at the threat that if he pushed then he stood a good chance of losing his business totally.

"If you feel the need to push, um press charges, please feel free to come to the Hokage's office. Oh and one final thing, we'll be needing the name of your seal master."

"No! Absolutely not!"

"I don't think you understand Sato-kun, we were asking you nicely. You really don't want this to get ugly. We cannot allow a man of this level of ability to roam around unchecked," the man held a hand to his ear for a moment, "I have been authorized to make a payment of two hundred and fifty thousand Ryo for this information," the eyes behind the mask never wavered as they watched the avaricious expression grow on the shopkeepers face. It was more money than this shop took in the previous five years combined.

"I'll have to take you to meet him, he's a very private man and you'll never find him without me," Sato smiled once again, the day wasn't turning out too bad after all, the old man was getting to an age where he could die at any moment anyway so it was no great loss to him if Konoha was willing to pay a fortune for him.

/ Hokage's office \

Sarutobi listened to the report from his ANBU squad and smiled, everything had been resolved peacefully and no ones reputation had been hurt by the incident. Just the way he liked it. Now he could focus on what he really liked to do, which was watch the lives of his villagers as they went about their peaceful lives, and two of his villagers in particular.

When he gazed into the crystal ball he had to chuckle at the sight he beheld, Anko lay sprawled asleep on the sofa, it seemed that she'd been holding a sleeping Naruto when she succumbed to the same state herself as he was resting against her. It was a picture of trust, both of them had been hurt in the past, but here they were willing to sleep in each others presence. It certainly boded well for their future.

/ To be continued? \

Authors notes, well I was kind of hoping to get some review for this. You see if I don't get any reviews then I don't think anyone's interested in the story, and if no one's interested in the story then there's no point me wasting time on a story that no one's interested in. Logical, yes?

**If you want to see another chapter let me know in a review.**

Souga Sousai no Jutsu - Twin Snakes Double Assassination


	3. Chapter 3

The littlest tree snake

Chapter 3

Disclaimer, I have nothing new to add to my previous statements of poverty and non-ownership.

Authors notes – I'd like to say a big "**THANKYOU**" to all the people who've reviewed this my stories so far. I may not have several hundred of them, but I think I prefer the ones I've got, since they're more than just, 'this is gr8 keep it up' or the like. Not that I don't like receiving that kind of review, but the well thought out reviews I've received from you people are much better IMHO.

For those who're waiting for the next chapter of 'One fine day', I am working on it and it's nearly half done. The problem is that the plot of the other story is much denser than the plot-line for this one. To understand what I mean, TLTS will mostly be Naruto or Anko interacting with character X. While OFD will follow Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Hinata directly and many others indirectly making it much more complex to make realistic or coherent. The long and the short of it is chapters for OFD will take longer to write. Thankyou for your attention, now on with the story.

/ Begin \

Naruto couldn't remember a time when he'd felt this refreshed upon waking up, or comfortable for that matter. He was far too comfortable to actually want to get up and squirmed a little to see if he could get even more so and maybe fall back to sleep. Quality sleep like this was hard to come by when you lived in an orphanage where the carer hated your guts and was likely to kick you awake at a moments notice. Finally finding a more comfortable position he rested his head against his pillow and sighed as the steady 'th-thmp' lulled him down towards slumber.

It was with a sharp jolt that he realized that his pillow didn't go 'th-thmp' or anything for that matter since he didn't have a pillow, and the mattress he used had seen hard usage in the last great shinobi war as a battering ram, with optional springs for added discomfort. That gave knowledge that he was sleeping somewhere that he shouldn't be, somewhere he probably wasn't safe. Not that the orphanage was all that safe either. It took a second to process all this information and for his fight or flight instincts to kick in, he was half way across the room and heading for the window when a familiar sounding voice stopped him.

"Naruto?" the sleepy woman asked as she sat up rubbing her eyes. Having the warm bundle that she'd been cuddling suddenly twist violently and dig two sharp pointy elbows into her chest had been one of the ruder awakenings she'd received in her life not to mention painful. She watched as the little blonde froze in his tracks and eyed her warily. Not that she could blame him, waking up in a strange place and not remembering why you were there could be really troublesome for a persons health.

She'd woken up a few times like that herself, with no recollection of how she got where she was or why she hurt so much. It'd been a couple of years later that she found out that her teacher was responsible and after she'd seen some of the things he was capable of she never questioned her faulty memory too closely.

"Hey kiddo, you hungry?" she asked softly waiting for his widely dilated pupils to return to normal as he figured out he wasn't in trouble and no one intended him harm. She knew it'd be a long time before he learned to trust again, or at all for that matter since he'd never had a reason to before. She smiled when he gave a hesitant nod and levered herself out of the sofa.

Naruto wasn't the only one who was surprised at the fact he'd slept in the presence of someone else, even if that someone else barely reached above her knee and couldn't hurt a fly unless he released the Kyubi. Things don't matter to people who've lived through the things they both had. Stepping into her small kitchenette she rifled through the fridge looking for something even remotely edible that didn't consist of dango. She remembered the Hokage's admonition that dango wasn't one of the five essential food groups for a growing child, with a certain element of rebellion on her part. If that was the case then there should be six essential food groups with dango having a group all to itself, since there were so many different types of the food.

Finally deciding that a simple stir-fry would have to do, and not knowing that Naruto had never eaten this well before she apologised for the simple fare. Naruto didn't acknowledge her as his chopsticks were a blur of motion as he wrapped his arm around the bowl so it wouldn't escape. Not that it had enough time for that to happen with the speed he devoured it.

Anko smirked a little as she watched him eat his fill while she ate at a more sedate pace, she even gave him seconds and still finished after him.

It did give her time to figure out just what she was going to do with him, first off she'd have to read the instructions for the gravity amulet and figure out how to use it properly, no use in using it if it killed the kid on first turning it on. That would be the first step, then she'd have to figure out how to bring out his chakra so he could use it at will. Again that would have to wait on certain things first, such as physical conditioning.

Decided finally she put her chopsticks down and went to retrieve an exploring Naruto.

"Okay Naruto, let me explain what's going on. First up, I've sort of adopted you," his eyes went really wide at that admission, he'd only ever dreamed of being adopted before and after a while he'd given up that small hope, now here he was learning that he'd been adopted after the fact, "What that means is you don't ever have to go back to the orphanage. You'll be living here with me."

Naruto looked around the apartment with renewed interest, it'd been one thing when he thought he was just staying over, but something else when he figured he'd be living here. The grin that lit up his face was nearly bright enough to light up the small room he was that happy.

"Now don't get too happy, one thing that you'll learn is I will be training you so you can defend yourself and this village. You'll come to hate me at times but I won't do anything I don't think is necessary to make you strong enough to look after yourself."

He looked at her again with wide eyes, 'Training? Like a ninja?' he thought incredulously, it was another of the dreams he'd harboured and it was coming true too? He looked at her hopefully.

"Like a ninja?"

"Yes just like a ninja. Would you like that?" she didn't need to wait for his response since his glee was written all over his face. "Good. It won't be easy training though, I plan to make you strong and you'll have to work hard," the smile didn't diminish in the least and she wondered if he understood what she meant by hard work. It didn't really matter though, he'd learn all about that later.

"What am I gonna do?"

"Well first we've got to get you ready, that'll include a lot of physical work, running and jumping, speed training, weight training and my favourite, acrobatics. You'll start tomorrow morning, and for the first couple of weeks I'll have you train for an hour, then two hours of book learning and then another hour of physical training." Naruto looked crestfallen at the thought of book learning.

"Do I gotta?"

"Yep, it's the best way to get strong fast. It doesn't matter how strong you are here," she tapped his bicep, "If you don't know what to do with it here," she tapped his forehead lightly. "The book learning is even more important than the rest of it, a smart weak ninja is more likely to survive than a strong dumb ninja," looking down at him she didn't really feel that he understood what she was saying but it didn't matter in the short term, he'd understand what she meant by the time she had him fully trained to her satisfaction, she'd make sure of it.

"So in the morning you'll do a total of two hours physical training and two hours book learning, after that we'll have lunch. Then when we return you'll start with two hours of book learning to settle your lunch then an hour of physical training, then I'll show you meditation. At the end of the day I'll teach you some basic kata. That's taijutsu, the art of fighting hand to hand. We'll do that for an hour then come home for dinner. That's a total of nine hours per day. I won't lie to you, you'll be very tired for a while but you'll get used to it in no time, trust me," Anko gave him a big smile of encouragement.

Naruto didn't understand everything she'd said but got the feeling he'd find out soon enough, the smile she gave him warmed something deep inside of him that he hadn't even known was there. Again he didn't have the words to express just what it was that smile invoked in him but he could definitely get used to it, and knew that he didn't want to lose it. He'd work as hard as he could when she was training him. It'd be worth almost anything if she'd smile at him like that again.

Anko smiled again as she saw determination ignite in his eyes and hoped he felt that way after tomorrow. For the moment they didn't have that many options, she might as well start on his book learning.

"Hey Naruto how well do you read?"

"Read?" he parroted back the unfamiliar word and Anko sighed as she figured she had more work ahead of her than she first thought.

"Alright, we'll look into that tomorrow as well. Just for now I'll read to you okay?" she went to her book shelf and pulled down a book that she thought was basic enough that he might understand it. Pulling him up and placing him in her lap she opened the book and began to read a story to him, just a basic mission report really with all the gory bits edited out, while she ran her finger under the part that she was reading.

Never having had someone read to him he was enthralled by the story and was nearly mesmerised by her finger as it slid across the page. Anko didn't know it but in that moment she ignited his enthusiasm to learn to read, if reading would allow him to learn about stories like the one she was reading to him. Though he didn't feel the need to rush, it felt nice to sit in someone's lap and relax as he was read to.

Anko looked down when she felt naruto's head loll against her chest and could feel him relaxing, maybe just a little too much, but didn't have the heart to wake him as his eyes fluttered closed. He didn't even protest when she picked him up and carried him into the bathroom stripping his clothes off of him and putting him into bath for a quick wash. A warm towel slightly scented with sandalwood and Naruto was put to bed in his new pyjama's.

Anko found herself sitting on the edge of the bed just watching as his breathing deepened and slowed to a sleeping pattern and sighed. This raising a child was a whole new field of experience for her, one she thought she'd bypassed when the village had labelled her as damaged goods after Orochimaru had fled. Now here she was, as good as playing mother to a five year old child and wondering if she was really good enough to guide the child as he grew.

Deciding that it was too early for her to sleep herself, it being only just past seven in the evening. She took it as a chance to finally read the manual for the amulet and learned all kinds of interesting things. Such as that it increased in increments of ten percent of gravity, with the first setting at 1.2 times gravity and increasing by 0.1 each time after that. She also learned that she'd never have to manually adjust the weights since the feedback seals did it automatically as they activated once a day.

Another benefit of the gravity amulet was that the person didn't need to be able to actively use their chakra since it tapped into their natural chakra core and used it directly, this had a secondary advantage for someone with small chakra reserves in that they constantly were having them drained and it helped to increase their capacity. Not that Naruto was likely to have that kind of problem, the little brat was almost lit up like a festival with how much he had floating around him, he had to be somewhere near chunin level already and that would only deepen as he got older, especially with the training she was planning.

Satisfied that the device didn't have any nasty surprises in-store for them she put the pamphlet down and turned to other problems. The most important of which was she was only just learning how little she knew about raising a child. She'd kind of assumed it would come naturally to her since she was a woman, but that idea had quickly been dealt a swift death when she kept coming up against things that seemed simple, such as she was pretty sure it wasn't good for children to be kept awake until they collapsed. On the other hand it was nice to know that he was actually asleep. It also caused her a small problem, she had to go out for a while and meet some people who could hopefully give her some information on how to raise the kid.

And therein lay her problem, one thing she did know was that you didn't leave a child unattended for any length of time. The second problem was that to get a baby-sitter to look after him while she was gone she'd have to leave him. Which was a catch 22 situation if she'd ever been in one. She could call the neighbours and see if one of them would be willing, but she didn't really trust them, they hadn't exactly proven to be good neighbours over the last year.

Racking her brain she tried to think of who she could get, who'd be likely to do her a favour when a stray thought stuck in her mind.

"Oh der! Why didn't I think of that before? Perfect. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" she called out just before she slammed her hand into the linoleum in the kitchen, the summoning seal formed across the floor and the room was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. When it cleared Anko found herself looking into the eyes of a twenty five metre python.

"Why did you sssssumon me?"

"Hello Sthiss, I've got a job for you," she led the way over to the bedroom and opened the door, followed by a grumpy snake. When the door was open sufficiently to let in a good amount of light she moved so that the snake could see what she was talking about.

"Oh a light sssnaack? For me? You shouldn't have," the snake sounded decidedly less grumpy at the thought of a good meal.

"Don't even think about it, you even flicker that tongue of yours in his direction and I'll skin you with a blunt knife and then slowly roast you over a fire, and when that was done I'd summon you again and again. You got me?" Anko rounded on the snake who had slithered back several metres and was looking at her with an affronted expression.

"Then what did you call me for? I thought you wanted me to get rid of your rat infessstasssion," the snake blinked a few times slowly as it regarded its summoner.

"I called you to guard the child."

"You called me to rat-ssssit?"

"Baby-sit! And no I…." Anko cast around for another reason she could give the snake for summoning it, one that it would find more acceptable, "I um was also hoping for some advice." Relaxing a little as she noted the tesion leave the snakes frame.

"Advicssse?" the snake turned to look at the child again, "I'd kill it before it getssss any bigger."

"That's not what I wanted to ask. I was thinking of having the child sign the Snake Summoning contract, and wanted to ask for your thoughts on the matter," Anko asked quietly. The snakes gaze returned to her so quickly that she thought it might be part cobra.

It's only response was a "Hmmm?" as it moved closer to the bed and allowed its body to coil under it. Moving forward slowly it peered closer at the child and then allowed its tongue to taste the air, pulling back a little so as not to alarm Anko it considered the information it had gained against the proposition Anko had made.

"No."

"No? No what? No you won't give adice or no….."

"The child cannot sign the snake contract," the snakes yellow eyes narrowed slightly.

"I didn't mean right now, he's got some growing to do before he'd be able to summon even the smallest of sakes," she remembered back to how hard it was for her the first time.

"Do not misssundersssstand me ssssummoner, I sssaid he cannot ssssign, and I meant ever. Do not presss thiisss iisssue, you can be removed from the contract easily."

Anko winced at the threat, while she didn't really like the snakes, they were a direct link to her sensei that would sometimes allow hr to gain information on him. The burning ambition that raged inside her to one day track him down and kill him would not allow to push the snake further, though she was curious as to why they'd refuse to have another outlet into the world.

"Okay, but if I can ask, why won't you let him sign?"

"There isss no affinity between usss. While we are of the earth and fire, thissss child isss of air and water, elementsss that are directly opposed to our own. Then there isss the fact that he isss not cold blooded," the snakes tongue flickered in her direction, "and I doubt you will teach him that. Lassssstly there issss the matter of him ssssstinking of the taint of foxssess."

Anko wasn't sure what that meant, other than the fact that like every other adult in the village she knew that Naruto was the container of the nine tailed fox. It did raise a question though, "Does that mean that Naruto could summon foxes?"

"It might be possssible, but no one hasss ever summoned foxssesss and no contract wasss formed between human and foxsss," the snake admitted reluctantly, it was beginning to get into territory that it really didn't want to.

"Explain, please," Anko watched the snake squirm as she nailed the one question he didn't want her to.

"I cannot, I would need permisssssion from the Sssnake Kking for that," Sthiss informed her.

"From the Snake King, well there's no way that Manda would allow me such information," Anko said dejectedly.

"What ever gave you the impresssssion that Manda wasss the Ssssnake King?" the snake asked Anko in an incredulous voice.

"But Manda always claimed he was," she said as she remembered the evil snake that Orochimaru always summoned.

"Hsss-hsss-hssss-hsssss," the snake lauhed at her shocked expression, "hardly, hsss-hssss, Manda is naught but a Battle commander. Give me ten years and I'll be stronger than he could ever dream of being, a hundred and I'll be ten times stronger. No, Manda is nothing but a snake with dreams. My father has done well to limit his growth, though he does a pretty good job all on his own."

"….." Anko stared at the snake blankly as all her beliefs about summons came crashing down around her ears. "But…. Your father?"

"Hmm, yesss my father, he isss ssseventh in line for the throne sssshould the Sssnake King ever die. Manda on the other hand would have to kill several thousand snakes to ascend the throne, hsss-hssss-hssss," Sthiss chuckled at the mere thought. "Father will be ssssoo amusssed."

"So you were going to explain," Anko prompted after she collected her thoughts.

"Damn, I had hoped you had forgotten. I ssshall have to assk my father to approach the Sssnake King for permisssion. It will take time, so sssummon me tomorrow and I ssshall anssswer if I am able. Underssstand sssummoner, if the answer isss no then the ssubject isss closssed." Anko could feel the summon about to un-summon itself and quickly interjected.

"I still need you to watch the boy for an hour or so, if you'd be so kind," Anko didn't like to think just how close she was to pleading.

"If I mussst," the snake sighed.

"Thank-you, thank-you, I'll be forever in your debt," Anko said as she rushed for the door, "I'll be back soon." As the door closed the snake sighed as it settled down to watching the boy, it'd admit that its curiosity had been peaked by the child. He was an unusual human that was for certain and he would bear watching in the future.

/ Hokage tower \

Anko rushed through the formalities as quickly as she could, she needed the answers to her questions and the Hokage was the only person she could think to approach for the information she needed. That and she had some information that the Hokage might find interesting, if what Sthiss had implied was true then there was a way to create summons contracts. That and the fact that the summons themselves had elemental affinities that made it more likely to be accepted, then again knowing Sarutobi it was possible that he already knew.

Knocking on the door she waited for a response from within.

"Come in," the voice of the Hokage didn't sound like the kind of voice you'd think of when thinking of the most powerful man in a village. He sounded more like a tired old man, much tireder than he normally did. For a moment Anko found herself concerned that his health might be failing, it wouldn't be too much of a shock as he was getting on towards his mid seventies. A time when most men would be relaxing and here he stood, the firm rock upon which the whole village depended.

Pushing the door open she stepped inside and noted the muted lights, with one bright lamp forming an island of brightness amongst the sea of shadows. Sitting in a comfortable looking armchair Sarutobi was lowering a scroll that he'd been reading to see who his guest was.

"Ah Anko-chan, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" The man smiled as she stepped closer to him.

"Um, er, I…." she wasn't entirely sure how to broach the subject now that she was here.

"I think I see. You've just figured out that it's not as easy as you thought to look after a child responsibly, hmm?" Anko nodded sheepishly, she should have known that he'd figure out what was happening. You didn't get to be Hokage just for being the strongest ninja in a village, it was a combination of things such as political prowess, connections within the village, image and of course an ability to defend oneself and the village in times of strife. Sarutobi had proven himself many times over the years to be a master of them all, that being the main reason why, when the Fourth was killed, that the Third had been recalled to office, the only other contender had been Danzo who was making his third attempt to gain the prestigious position.

"I thought it might take a little longer personally, but then I've always pegged you as being particularly bright. I prepared this for you," he picked up a small scroll from the side table and tossed it to her. When she raised an eyebrow in question he continued, "It's a storage scroll, in it you'll find some of the more popular parenting books and scrolls, along with my personal observations. There's also a scroll with a suggested training schedule for Naruto. I take it you do plan to train him?"

"Yes, I'd already come up with a few things, but I'm always happy to get more ideas," Anko smiled, it had always amazed her that he seemed to be several steps ahead of everyone he met.

"Good, good, closing your mind to other possibilities is one of the major reasons we lose so many ninja. One thing I would suggest outright," he paused as he regained her attention.

"Yes sir?"

"Have you noticed how large Naruto's chakra reserves are?"

"Yes, I think they're about mid chounin level aren't they?"

"Not quite, they're actually a little larger than that, but about ten percent of his reserves go into maintaining the seal and are not accessible," he didn't need to explain any further, "Having such a large chakra reserve will lead to many problems for him. I was going to enrol him in the academy later this year and have them see to his training, but since you are a highly competent ninja I'll leave it for the standard two 'clan' years." Anko listened intently to his words, especially the part about leaving his basic training up to her, only children who had no background of ninja in their families had to enter the academy as early as the age of five. The clans took the two years to make sure that their family members had all the training they'd need to function in the clan, and then they came to the academy at seven to learn supplemental studies that weren't as important to whatever clan techniques their families used, while still studying at home. That he was willing to treat her and Naruto as a clan made her feel giddy as it struck her how much like a family they were.

"If I were you I'd suggest an intensive course of chakra control exercises, forgoing the academy level of exercises altogether. His reserves will build naturally as he grows but his control will be lacking without appropriate exercises."

"Isn't it a bit much to expect him to be able to do 'Tree walking' or 'Water walking' at such an early age?"

"I don't think you have any choice if you hope for him to have good chakra control when he graduates the academy. The gravity amulet you have is another step in the right direction," the old man grinned at the look of shock on Anko's face.

"You knew about that?" she managed to gasp out.

"Do you really need me to answer that question?" he smiled again as he looked pointedly at the clock, "In any case I won't keep you any longer as you should get back to Naruto."

"He'll be alright for a little while, I've got someone watching him."

"Oh? Who?" he asked curiously.

"Sthiss…"

"You left a summon snake to take care of a little boy?"

"He's perfectly safe, I made sure Sthiss knew what would happen if he ate the boy." Anko grinned as it was the Hokage's turn to go wide eyed in surprise.

"Still, I think I'd be happier if you didn't do that in future, and my point still remains, it's getting late and there's always a chance that Naruto will wake up. Finding a giant snake in those circumstances might not be a good thing, hmm?"

As Anko left the tower she decided she'd tell the Hokage about the possibility of new summoning contracts if Sthiss came back with the information she'd asked for.

/ To be continued \

Authors end notes – I'd like to specifically thank the reviewers who suggested that I put this story in the Anko/Naruto sections. I didn't think it would make that much difference, but I was wrong. Well hell, it does happen, go figure.

**About MANDA** – I kind of figure I'm gonna get a lot of people saying, 'But the manga says he is!' or 'That's not what canon says!' My point is, okay Orochimary believes that Manda is King of Snakes, Manda tells him its so. So as far as Orochipu is concerned Manda is King. Doesn't necessarily make it true. I could say I was the Queen of England, and I might get some people to believe me, that wouldn't make it true, in fact it would probably mean we were crazy. Hmm the possibilities…..well apart from the gender thing. Lol.

**One last little thing**, I always love to read the reviews you guys give, in fact even the ones that pick fault are excellent as they explain what I did rather than go, 'U suk', um not too helpful if you see what I mean.


	4. Chapter 4

The Littlest Tree Snake

Chapter 4

A/N: I have to apologise for delays on this story. Lot's of S**t happening in my world and not all of it good. I'll survive, and when I get some money together I'll be able to repair my home based computer with all my work on it. As it is I'm currently using my laptop and trying to recreate work from memory, it's not going so well.

/ Next morning \

As the sun skimmed above the horizon the next day a small bundle of bedclothes in the middle of a wide mattress began to wriggle furiously. Moments later a head of blonde hair squeezed out of it followed by a hand which rose to rub at a pair of bleary blue eyes. A massive jaw cracking yawn later and the struggle for release from the evil bed linen began anew as he rolled across the expanse of white sheet. With a startled yelp the young boy found out that he'd run out of mattress and plunged to the floor with a muffled thump.

"Ooof!"

It had one bonus, and that was the corner of the sheet that'd been tucked under his body was finally released and had given up its octopus like grip on him allowing him to sit up. Muffling a second yawn Naruto looked around the strange room he found himself in trying to figure out where he was and why. Finding the bags that contained the purchases Anko had made for him the previous day had him brightening up considerably as the events of that day washed over him. He'd been afraid that it was all a dream and he'd wake up in his cold corner of the boiler room in the orphanage wondering how the evil caretaker was going to 'wake' him today.

Slowly pushing himself to his feet he stretched his black pyjama clad arms over his head while arching his back with a little grunt of exertion. The rapidly brightening light in the room finally impinged on his consciousness enough for him to understand what it meant. It was 'tomorrow', meaning that Anko would begin his training. It was another of those longed for things, some children would wish for frivolous things like toys or sweets but Naruto was different. He'd seen the way he was treated and compared it with the way other people were treated. He'd seen the way children were treated but decided that he didn't want that for himself. While he hated the way he was treated he couldn't see himself being happy with having his freedom to move around as he liked taken away from him. A surprisingly adult way of looking at things, but then most children who feared for their lives on a regular basis tended to grow up real quick, or not grow up at all.

Wanting to be treated like an adult was also a little out of his reach, literally as he was too short and well, they were mostly boring. Human watching was one of his vices, it was informative and didn't cost anything other than the occasional beating if he allowed himself to be caught. So if not a child, and not an adult, that left only one classification as far as he was concerned. Ninja.

He noted the way people treated ninja, it was really hard to miss since he lived in a Hidden village. The people, no matter their station would often defer to the ninja around them. Not kow-tow, but rather respect their abilities and willingness to sacrifice themselves for the continued safety of the village. Not that Naruto put it in such terms, he only knew that the ninja tended to be respected and had come to a childish conclusion. That being, that if he were a ninja he'd be respected just like they were. Decision made he'd gone about searching for someone to train him and had hit a stonewall of rejection. So the thought that the strange woman who'd rescued him yesterday was offering to train him was like Christmas and his birthday rolled into one. Not that he knew what all the fuss was about, Christmas was something that happened to other children, and as for his birthday, well the whole village celebrated that. He knew that that particular day was a good day to make himself scarce as a lot of them wanted to hurt him and only the fact that the Hokage had set guards to watch over him had kept him from becoming an unfortunate statistic on occasion.

All of these nebulous thoughts flashed through the childs mind in mere seconds before being replaced by thoughts that be summed up in one word…'Training', and as is often the case with children as young as Naruto thought and action go hand in hand. Heading for the door he was unsurprised to find it partially open, enough that he could squeeze through the space without moving it.

Walking out into another room he looked around with wide eyes, this was so much nicer than anything he'd ever seen before. Not that it was furnished ostentatiously, it was rather spartan in most peoples terms, it was more that Naruto wasn't used to anything other than the orphanage since he'd never been allowed into a 'normal' house before. He'd been to visit the Hokage in his tower but he'd only ever been in the office so he'd never seen a normal living room before. He took in the nice carpet and stuffed chairs shortly after checking all visible doors and windows, he didn't like being in an unknown confined space. In his limited experience it tended to hurt if he allowed himself to be herded into such places. In this case knowledge was survival and Naruto was very good at it, after all, he'd survived five years now. Tip-toeing further into the room and skirting one of the armchairs he came into view of the sofa and spotted something that improved his mood immensely.

/ Anko \

She had no idea what time it was, other than the fact it was morning, it was too bright for any other explanation. Why she was awake at this Kami forsaken time was beyond her, other than a vague feeling that something in her environment had changed in the last minute or so. It was only a minute twinge at this point, enough to make her start to pay attention to things going on around her.

A sudden spike of chakra and sense of motion had her moving instinctively before her higher brain functions started screaming out 'Abort, abort'. Halfway to an upright defensive position her intent changed from killing to amused as she recognized the incoming blur that would have slammed knee first into her prone forms stomach. Snagging a passing limb Anko redirected the force of his motion and swung the small body upwards so that Naruto was dangling upside down and eye to eye with the kunoichi. They were going to have a talk about this, but for the moment she would deal with the giggling bundle of energy that her charge had turned into this morning

"Anko-chaan," he squealed protesting as he dangled from her fist.

"Hey brat," Anko yawned and released the light grip she had on a kunai as she reached up to flick the little boys nose. Naruto rubbed at the offended site before letting loose another string of giggles. Damn, he had to be a morning person, it was the only explanation. She personally had nothing against them as long as they were being inflicted on someone else. Well there was nothing for it, she'd just have to deal with it since she'd asked for this.

"So what do ya want to do today?" she asked. She was prepared to do almost anything for their first couple of days together, they'd have to get to know each other since neither of them had much inclination to trust someone blindly. She'd done that once and the pain of the memories prohibited her from ever wanting something like that to happen to her again. Anko had a feeling the boy wasn't much better than her, maybe the fact that he'd never had anyone to trust in the first place would lessen any sense of betrayal, that didn't mean that he didn't know about it though. With her limited knowledge of children she was expecting demands to visit the local park and then…well she wasn't sure what because she hadn't had a chance to read the scrolls the Hokage had given her.

"Train me!" Naruto yelled before he settled into giving her a wide toothy grin.

"You want me to train you?" she asked with a blank expression on her face. Truthfully she had every intention of doing just that, she'd gone to a lot of effort to get the gear to begin his training but she'd expected to do things subtly to begin with. Give him the gravity pendant as a gift and then play with him, run him around a little, get him to play on the jungle gym or something. The increased weight given him via the gravity seal would have begun to condition his body for the real training while she began coaxing him to train for real. Yet here he was, first day together and he was demanding to be trained. "You sure about that gaki?"

"Yep!" he affirmed turning his grin up another notch.

Anko slumped back into the couch she'd been asleep on just a short while ago with an audible thunk.

"Well bugger me," _that throws a wrench in the works don't it_? Let's see, active training for someone as young as Naruto, "Lemme think for a minute kiddo," she said as she launched the boy across the room in a gentle arc. Watching how he acted while in flight was a revelation, she'd half expected him to flail around in fear, but for some reason he stayed absolutely still as the spin she'd put on him righted him to land butt first in the seat she'd aimed him at. He looked up at her with his eyes alight and looked like he was planning to come back to have another go if she could read his expression correctly. Well chalk another one up for the brat, it implied that while they had little history that the kid trusted her on some level not to hurt him. He'd learn better later, but for now the trust was something that was necessary, though she didn't know how far she could push that trust. The knowledge she held was that no matter how much he trusted her at this moment she'd have to build up that feeling since if she ever betrayed it she'd never get another chance. Trust is such a fragile thing as she very well knew.

"Ah-aaah! Anko needs to think so you just sit there for a while and then we'll go get some breakfast.

Anko watched as he slumped back into the chair with a pout on his face that caused his 'whiskers' to twitch like an annoyed kitten. It was almost unbearably cute and anyone else might have given in, but her need to think things through was over-bearing. Running through the training she'd been put through she instantly discarded more than ninety percent of it as too dangerous for a human let alone a child of five. Besides teaching him techniques or weapons would be a total waste of time since he had none of the foundation of a ninja. His chakra hadn't been 'awakened' yet, his strength was an unknown. In fact the only thing he had going for him so far was that he was pretty fast, he'd almost been a yellow blur as he'd headed for her a short time ago. It wasn't all that fast in terms of most ninja but still pretty good for a kid. The academy was out as far as she was concerned, he was still too young to enter, children typically needed to be seven or eight before they were allowed to enter and Naruto was a mere five, and only just that. It really didn't leave any choice, she'd need to take a break from missions for a while.

Having come to a decision she rummaged around in her pocket for a second and retrieved the amulet she'd appropriated the day before and looked at it. It didn't look all that special up close like this, more like a bronze ball about an inch across. Closer inspection showed that seals covered the surface, not that she could read them. They were much too advanced, though she did understand one of them. It was in a small blank space, just one kanji, the number one sitting all alone. She'd read bits of the pamphlet she'd retrieved with the amulet the day before so knew that it was a reflection of the fact that the seal was inactive, or rather neutral. When either she, or Naruto put it on the number would change to one point two, or a twenty percent increase in gravity affecting the body of the wearer. Shortly after the amulet would assess the results of altering gravity and would change the number to reflect the persons bodies ability to deal with said changes. Well she'd give him the amulet and that would take care of his physical conditioning. He'd get stronger and faster at the same time, well he would be once the amulet was deactivated. It wouldn't do much for agility but she'd get to that with other training. Then there was bringing his chakra to the surface so that he could use it and learn to control it, an essential necessity in a ninja's training, something certain people seemed to have forgotten.

Regardless of her negative thoughts about the academy she'd have to admit that the last few classes had turned out some pretty good ninja, and with a few years of seasoning they'd be excellent additions to the villages battle line. Not that Konoha get into too many battles these days, Sarutobi, the current Hokage was more wont to create treaties that benefitted both parties than rely on all out war to get what he wanted. Other villages might call it cowardice, but she had to admire the old mans cunning. While Iwa and Kumo fought to get what they want, and often won their conflicts they lost man-power every time they battled someone. Konoha on the other hand had nearly doubled it's complement of ninja over the last five years and could very well double it again in the next five. It was a comforting thought in this uncertain world. Shaking her head slightly Anko came back to the matter at hand.

Alright, physical conditioning, chakra control and… Well sparring was definitely out, unless she could…hmm, that bore definite possibilities. For the moment though it would have to be kata, at least until he had the first three of them down to an instinctual level, then they'd see.

Looking up she found that Naruto was a finely wound bundle of energy that was almost vibrating as he sat there waiting for her to do her 'thinking' and he looked very much like he might explode at any moment. She couldn't help grinning at him in response.

"What say we get some breakfast? Anything in particular you'd like?" She was very surprised when the boy went very still and wide eyed as he regarded her.

Now Naruto was the one that was shocked, it was a simple concept for most children to grasp, 'Anything in particular you'd like?', in his limited experience he'd feel privileged to get anything for breakfast. The thought that he'd get a choice in what he got was nearly mind blowing, besides he didn't have any real idea what choices there were, the only thing he'd ever gotten for breakfast before would be a thin gruel that he was told was porridge. It'd looked more like dirty water in his opinion, and tasted nearly as bad.

"Well never mind that for the moment, let's just get you something to eat. We can find out what you like latter," Anko stood up and headed for the kitchen satisfied that the child was following her.

Naruto slid out of the chair with a grunt of exertion before following Anko, he was too busy thinking about how lucky he was. The thought of training to be a ninja dancing in his head, and he got breakfast too? Naruto was a little suspicious by nature and was beginning to look for the hidden cost of all this. Somehow he got the feeling that there'd be a price to pay for all of this, he just didn't know how right he was…

/ Hokage's Tower \

The Hokage was currently sitting at his desk enjoying his favourite pastime, spying on his village, or rather two particular members of his village. Certainly he'd given Anko permission to take the boy in but that didn't mean he trusted her ability to look after the child fully. So he'd decided to act as her safety net while she became accustomed to her new life.

He definitely hoped that the serious discussion the woman seemed to be having with the child while he devoured three bowls of cereal was about his actions of the morning. Children who lived in clan households were raised differently from other village children. They knew that certain actions were not allowed, other children would wake their mummy or daddy by leaping onto them while they were sleeping. Ninja children learned early that it wasn't such a good idea as mummy or daddy could very well hurt them before they were fully awake, especially if they were in a place that they thought they could relax, they felt they could let their guard down. Very few children in such family's had ever been hurt, in Konoha. Other villages acted differently but Konoha believed that children shouldn't be raised with the constant fear of injury. Not that children were never injured, just that it wasn't a way of life and wasn't considered something to be blasé over.

Looking back at the crystal sphere in time to see Anko Mitarashi place a small necklace over the boys shoulders reminded him that he still had to have that talk with the seal master.

/ To be continued \

Authors notes:- Hi everybody. Long time no see. Just a little interim chapter to let you know that the story is still alive, and I am working on it, just slower than I'd like to.


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